Websites That List Your Personal Information

Want to know which websites list personal information? Current regulations allow data brokers and people search sites to publish your data. These websites can sell your data to anybody willing to pay. This guide explains how to protect your privacy by removing your data from data broker sites.

The risks of having your personal information available online are severe. Anyone can access your name, address, phone number, and more, which can expose you to scams, fraud, and stalking.

A huge number of websites list personal information without permission. The best way to remove your data is to use a service like Incogni. Incogni works tirelessly to automatically remove your data from more than 180 people search sites.

In this guide, we explain how people search sites work, which websites list personal information, and how you can take action to protect your privacy.

What are people search sites?

People search sites (or people finder sites) are online platforms that collect and publish personal data. These websites gather your information from public records, social media, and many other public sources.

Once they have acquired your data, they add it to a database that anybody can pay to see. This searchable data is sold for profit without your consent or knowledge. We believe that selling personal data without your knowledge should be illegal. Unfortunately, the government doesn’t agree.

Current regulations make it legal for data brokers and people finder sites to sell your data without oversight. This means that anybody – including cybercriminals, hackers, and scammers – can purchase your private information.

Data aggregators and people search sites, claim to offer background checks and a convenient way to locate old friends. The reality is that they allow your data to be purchased by people involved in scams, identity theft, stalking, and harassment.

How do data brokers get my data from?

Data brokers and people finder sites harvest data from any public source. This data is already “public,” so they are technically doing nothing wrong by collecting it. The dangerous part is that these services compile data from hundreds of different sources into one concise database with all your information. This creates a single repository with all your data, where anybody can find everything they need to commit identity theft or fraud.

Below, we have included a list of places people search sites gather data from:

• Social media profiles (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn)
• Public records (e.g., voter registration, property records, court documents)
• Government databases (e.g., DMV records, business registrations)
• Online directories (e.g., Whitepages, Yellowpages)
• Business websites and online portfolios
• News articles and press releases
• Professional licensing boards
• Data broker partnerships and exchanges
• Public forums and discussion boards
• Blogs and personal websites
• E-commerce websites and customer reviews
• Job posting websites and professional networking platforms
• Real estate listing websites
• Obituaries and genealogy websites
• Marketing lists and online surveys
• Vehicle licensing databases
• Court records and legal filings
• Educational institutions and alumni directories
• Charity and nonprofit donor lists
• Phone books and contact aggregators
• Utility records and service providers
• Health provider directories
• Property sales and mortgage records
• Financial records accessible to the public
• Company filings and employment records
• Public government meeting minutes and agendas

Why should I remove my information from people search sites?

Websites that sell access to your personal information cause huge privacy risks. They can also result in a great deal of stress. Some people, such as public figures and influencers, may be staked in their homes due to these websites. In addition, these websites are responsible for thousands of people being tracked down by unwanted exes or family members each year.

Scammers also use these platforms to collect details for phishing and fraud. This can lead to very serious consequences, including malware infections, identity theft, and the emptying of your bank account.

These websites can also affect your eligibility for insurance and loans and, due to discrimination, your ability to get housing or employment. Removing your data from people search sites helps reduce these risks and protect your privacy.

Most popular websites that list your personal information

Below, we have included a list of the most popular websites that list personal information. To help you, we have explained how to remove yourself from each site manually. Keep scrolling for a longer list of data brokers from which you should also remove yourself.

1. Whitepages

Whitepages is one of the oldest people search sites. It holds the data of hundreds of thousands of Americans, as well as people in the UK, Europe, and potentially other countries too. It lists information like phone numbers, addresses, employment history, and property records.

• Data Removal: To opt out of Whitepages, visit their website, search for your listing, and use their “Remove My Info” link to submit a removal request.

2. Intelius

Intelius is a data broker that offers background checks, and people search primarily for people based in the US.

• Data Removal: To opt out of Intelius, go to their opt-out page, find your record, and complete their form to request removal.

3. BeenVerified

BeenVerified provides public records searches, listing data like criminal records, addresses, license information, and phone numbers.

4. PeopleFinder

PeopleFinder collects personal data from various public sources, making it accessible to anyone who searches.

• Data Removal: Use PeopleFinder’s opt-out page to locate your information and submit a removal request.

5. Instant Checkmate

Instant Checkmate provides information, including addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, Social Security numbers, and even arrest records.

6. Radaris

Radaris is another company that compiles information about you from public databases and sells access to a large number of personal data sets.

• Data Removal: To have your Radaris profile deleted, go to Radaris’ opt-out page, search for your profile, and follow the instructions.

7. TruthFinder

TruthFinder offers detailed background reports and collects data such as phone numbers, addresses, and other sensitive personal details.

• Data Removal: To opt out of TruthFinder, visit their opt-out page, search for your listing, and submit your request.

8. Smart Background Checks

Smart Background Checks aggregates public data to provide detailed reports on individuals. It has more than a billion personal records compiled from over 2000 sources.

More people-finder sites that list personal data

Aside from the most popular websites, there are many other people search sites that list personal information. Checking these sites and opting out periodically is essential for maintaining your privacy.

Here are 20 more data brokers and people finder sites that also list personal information:

How to delete your information from people-search sites

If you prefer to delete your information manually, here’s what you need to do:

1. Head to the people search site.
2. Find the opt-out form or contact them via email.
3. Provide the link to your listing.
4. If required, provide proof of identity.
5. Request the removal of your personal data.

After you submit your request, the data broker should comply. However, it may take multiple requests before they fully remove your information.

Be aware that due to the current legal situation, data brokers and people search sites can reacquire your data. This creates a loophole because data brokers will put your data on ice rather than deleting it.

After a few months of keeping your data “on ice” (suppressing it rather than permanently deleting it), they will re-add you to the database, claiming to have reacquired and re-added your data.  This means you must keep making data removal requests periodically to maintain your privacy.

How Incogni can help remove your data

Manually opting out of people search sites is extremely time-consuming. Thankfully, there is a more straightforward solution: Incogni.

Incogni offers a cheap and reliable way to remove their data from websites that sell personal information. This protects you against threats like phishing scams. By automating removing your data from over 180 data brokers, Incogni helps keep your digital footprint safe. This eliminates the need for you to do the hard work and protects you against ID theft, fraud, stalking, fake UPS scam texts, Amazon driver test scams, and many other fraudulent cyberattacks.

How does Incogni work?

Incogni works on your behalf to find which data brokers are holding your data. Once it finds your data, it contacts those data brokers to request data removal. Incogni keeps checking back and won’t quit until your data has been removed from its database and is no longer available for purchase.

Ongoing data protection

Incogni understands that data brokers use sneaky and deceitful methods to relist personal data as quickly as possible. Data brokers know that current laws create a loophole. This legal loophole lets them suppress your data rather than deleting it.

After a few months of keeping your data on ice, data brokers will relist it. If anybody were to question why they are listing your data after being asked to remove it, they would simply say that they must have reacquired it from public records.

The good news is that Incogni protects you against this problem. It continuously monitors data broker websites. If it finds your data again, Incogni sends new removal requests, which guarantees that it keeps being removed repeatedly.

Track your data removal progress

One of the best things about Incogni is that it lets you track the progress of your removal request. Every user gets their own dashboard where they can track everything:

1. When a search begins
2. When data is located
3. When a removal request is initiated
4. When a removal request has been completed successfully

This gives you complete visibility over what is happening. If Incogni locates any data in the future, it will start a new removal request that you can track in your dashboard.

Save time and effort

Incogni carried out a study that revealed opting out of all data brokers takes 304 hours. This means that subscribing to Incogni will save you around 608 hundred hours each year.

It is also worth noting that Incogni currently offers all our readers a 50% off deal. This reduces the cost to just $7.49 each month. This is exceptional value for money for a service that constantly searches for and removes your data from over 180 websites and services!

Tips to protect your personal information online

Online Privacy & Data Removal: Removing personal information from people search sites is just part of a larger process to maintain rock-solid online privacy. To help you out, we have provided advice that will help reduce your exposure to online tracking.

Here is what you can do to improve your privacy:

• Use a VPN: A VPN is an online privacy service that encrypts your internet connection. This stops wifi hotspots, ISPs, and other unwanted third pirates from tracking your website visits, which helps to prevent your web habit information from being passed to data brokers.
• Use a personal information removal service: Services like Incogni can help remove your information from data brokers, saving you time and ensuring thorough removal.
• Set accounts to private: Make social media accounts private and adjust your settings to restrict third-party data sharing.
• Use a burner email: When signing up for online services, use a temporary email to prevent your real email from spreading. You can also sign up for service using a forwarding phone number from a service like Google Voice. This stops your real phone number from being published online.
• Delete unused apps and accounts: Remove any apps you no longer need, as they may still collect and share your data. Also, close any online accounts you no longer use as these could be hacked and used to impersonate you.

Websites that list personal information FAQs